Here are my sermon notes from Elevation Church preached on June 11, 2023 by guest pastor, Tauren Wells.
Disclaimer: these are just my notes.
Even though I made extra effort to capture as many pertinent points as possible, it is best for you to watch the full message.
Be sure to watch it to get the stories and examples and to capture points I might have missed.
I do hope my efforts blesses you; especially those of you who just want a quick overview for your egroup meetings.
Sermon Notes: I Still Love The Church
Key Verse:
22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 1:22-23
– The first thing God assigned Christ to was the church
The Church is His body
Key Passage: Ephesians 2:19-22
You have been built upon the foundation of…politician, ethnicity and culture etc…all those things we think makes us us, are actually just superficial layers that exist at the surface, not at the foundation.
The solid foundation was put together by flesh and blood, sacrifice and tears:
- the prophets preached and died to build it
- Jesus preached and died to build it
Jesus dwells in the church. He inhabits, dwells in, lives in, moves in and breathes into the church.
Be Wary of Cynicism and Criticisms of the Church
There is a sense of belonging that we get when we get together in church.
Even though, there is an undeniable shadow-side of the church.
At Church We are Called Into Something Bigger
Have you ever had a definitive moment engrained in your mind and in your heart where you realize that God called you into something bigger than yourself to accomplish something bigger than yourself?
Your gift and soul aligned with the Giver for the ministry of the church to achieve something bigger than yourselves?
Still love the church
“The church hurt me and the church helped me”
Wells has experienced the shadow side of the church.
Shadow side:
- Wells has been bruised by believers
- been shocked by the politics surrounding the church.
- stunned by reactions and missteps by the church
- confused by Christians who manage to carry the weight of the cross and still have the strength to hurl stones at their brothers and sisters who are trying to follow Jesus as imperfectly as it may be
Wells has learnt however to not judge the majority who are trying to do it right by the minority who got it wrong.
Reasons to Still Love The Church
- It has outlived empires and philosophical systems and persecution and sabotages from within it
- It has traversed countries and continents
- transcended kingdoms and cultures
- from its inception on the day of Pentecost (See Acts 2) the church has moved by the wind of heaven to accomplish the mandate set by Christ for us to go out into the world and make disciples
- He didn’t commission us to go out and make perfect people but disciples.
The church is not dead, it is not atrophied. The church is not irrelevant. It is alive!
The church is the expression and embodiment of the kingdom of heaven alive and active here on earth.
The Church Is Not:
-a political platform
– a museum filled with ancient relics of what God used to do
– a showroom for pretty, perfect people
– an empty, ritualistic routine.
The church has the exclusive mission and mandate to elevate Christ, to preach Him crucified and to tell the world that Jesus still saves
The Church Is
- the imperfect amplifier of of truth, justice and the sovereignty of God
- Jesus’ love on display
- a symbol of grace
- a conduit of mercy
- a hospital for the broken
- a family for the lonely
- the place where captives find freedom
Jesus loves the Church
The church is His treasure. It is His bride and His love.
The church is His dream.
God will use buried dreams to resurrect better dreams.
Christ died for the church, we might as well live for it.
The truth is we need the church.
We are all wounded. We need something to lean on that is bigger than us.
The church can be a crucible that melts us down, making us pliable to be conformed to the character of Christ.
We can’t look like Jesus and not love the church.
We cannot come into a church and expect to apply ourselves to a finished product.
God is building us together so expect the mess, expect the bumps.
Expect things to be challenging at times because is using the church to make us like Him.
It is going to cost us something.
What did it cost Jesus?
Being a part of the church means commitment when it is hard.
Laying down your personal preferences.
It means serving when you feel taken for granted
If you follow Jesus long enough, everything that happened to Him will happen to you
The statistics show that we attend church once every 6 weeks. That’s approx 8 times per year. Consider the spiritual implications of that!
Only 8 days out of 365. What does that say about the future of the church if tis is the present reality?
Follow Jesus, not headlines. Live according to the prophets and Jesus, not the media.
Jesus Went To Church
According to Luke 4:16 – “as was His custom” – Jesus went to church!
In Acts too, they gathered to meet and break bread daily!
Jesus went to church, the New Testament believers went to church; therefore, we can’t reject the new testament church’s priorities and expect their power.
We cant reject Jesus’s priorities and expect His provision.
God uses the church to connect us to His purpose
He uses it as the context for His people’s gifts to be developed and delivered.
Do you want purpose?
Get your soul aligned with the gift in service of the Giver, ministering to the church.
We are created to be connected.
Some of us have been trying to operate in our maximum capacity and we can’t because we are limited.
We are limited when we disconnect from the body.
We can’t just be connected to the Head as we will never be fully connected to our purpose until we take what is connected to the Head and connect it to the body.
When you get connected to the Body you get to operate at your maximum capacity.
The Danger of Autonomy
We have elevated individualism over everything else.
‘Being you’ has become of the highest value but we end up cannibalizing each other, our gifts, our talents and our dreams.
This path can lead us to the top but when we get there we will see that there is only Loneliness Hotel up there.
We mustn’t want autonomy over connection.
Autonomy is not the greatest aspiration. Rather, it is the way we limit ourselves.
The Gift in Tension
We want autonomy and not attachment because we don’t want the tension.
But where we find tension is where we find our purpose.
When you are willing to put yourself in the tension then you become God’s intention for the body that you are serving.
If u see a problem, then you are probably the solution.
The thing that you see, is a thing you can solve
If you can recognize a problem, then you should become the solution.
So instead of criticizing, why not connect yourself to the body so you can become a part of the solution
God still wants to accomplish something and He is going to use the church to do it.
Your gift is needed in the church.
Don’t lay your life down for the culture, lay it down for the church.
God designed the church to declare Jesus across the globe.